


these things cannot be helped

by Princex_N



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Anger, Angst, Autistic Angus, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Meltdown, Team as Family, emotional breakdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 01:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10452117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princex_N/pseuds/Princex_N
Summary: Angus works himself to a breaking point, and Taako tries to help as best as he can.





	

It isn't often that Taako bothers to seek Angus out; usually the boy detective is the one to track  _him_ down, but Taako hasn't seen the kid all day and something feels decidedly off. Angus has been quiet and sort of flighty for the past few days ever since the last mission ended and Taako isn't really into that whole scene, so he's taking it upon himself to figure out what the fuck is up. 

He checks Angus' usual haunts --the library, the Voidfish chamber, the common areas-- and can't find him, which is kind of weird. He asks around, but no one else has seen him today either, which is weirder. Taako doesn't get anxious, not for other people, but he's definitely not feeling good about the way things are playing out at the moment. 

It's sheer luck that Taako eventually finds him. He's on his way to check Angus' room when he hears a choked off noise coming from a usually empty storage room, and when he peers inside, he sees Angus standing tense in the middle of the room. 

"There you are!" Taako exclaims, disguising relief as exasperation because he's been running around all morning looking for this kid. "What are you doing in here?" 

Taako doesn't know what he  _was_ expecting, but it certainly hadn't been for Angus to completely ignore him, going so far as to not even physically react to Taako's voice. 

"Kiddo, hey, I'm talking to you," Taako clarifies, as if there was somehow room for confusion, considering there's no one else around. 

Angus definitely reacts this time. He lets out a frustrated shriek before half-turning to snap, "God, just shut up!" at  _Taako_. 

Taako who is, for once, stunned into utter silence. He has to take a moment to pause and wonder if what just happened  _actually just happened_ before incredulously asking, "Excuse me?" as if he'd possibly misheard. 

The usually pretty collected boy detective grabs a handful of his kinky curly hair and  _pulls_ and snarls a wordless noise of anger. "Shut up!!!" he demands a second time. 

Taako steps into the room fully and closes the door behind him to hopefully muffle some of the noise leaving the room. " _Mijo_ , talk to me, what's the issue here?" He steps forward, hands out and placating, but Angus flinches back out of reach. 

"No!" the kid yells, jerking his head backwards slightly with the force of his own words. 

"No?" Taako repeats, and starts to wonder exactly what he thinks he's doing here. He may know what's up, but if there's any one person on base  _not_ made to disarm emotionally charged situations, it's Taako. 

"No!" Angus echoes back, and then lets go of his hair to flap his hands in unbridled agitation as he groans low in his throat. 

"Alright," Taako says slowly, and eases himself to the floor. "You do you, and I'm going to sit here, and when you're ready to talk about this, we can." He tries hard to keep his tone neutral, because he doesn't want Angus to misunderstand and get even more upset than he already is. 

Because Taako  _does_ get it. He hasn't been a kid in a while, but he still remembers being a kid out on his own and the pressure of trying to be an adult to make sure that people take you seriously and don't leave you behind in the dirt, and sometimes that pressure gets to be too much,  _especially_ for a kid. 

Taako's an adult now who doesn't particularly care about acting like an adult anymore, but he remembers and so he can stay here and make sure that Angus is okay, and he can bear the brunt of any frustration that Angus feels like throwing his way. At any rate, leaving the boy here by himself definitely isn't an option. 

Angus doesn't seem particularly pleased with Taako's decision to stick around. "Just leave me  _alone,_ " he demands. 

Taako shakes his head idly. "Nah, Taako's good right here," he says, and isn't surprised when Angus responds to this with another wordless roar. Taako lets the anger wash over him and pulls out a nail file so that he can avoid outright staring at the meltdown happening in front of him. 

He listens to Angus stomp around a bit, groaning angrily under his breath, and then Angus is right in front of him, shoving ineffectually at Taako's bulk to try and get him out of the room, yelling at him to  _just leave_. 

Taako ignores all of this completely, and it's only moments later when Angus is crumpling against the elf's side, huge tears dripping down his cheeks as he sobs loudly into Taako's scarf. And Taako drops the nail file and pulls Angus into his lap, and lets the kid cling to him while Taako maintains a firm pressure around his shoulders and lets him cry it all out. 

Angus chokes out some half-formed words that Taako couldn't decipher if his life depended on it, so he just continues to rock them back and forth while trying to ignore the steadily growing damp patch on his shirt. 

"I'm s-s-sorry," Angus stutters out, shoulders hitching as he wipes ineffectually at his face. Taako tries not to think about how gross that is as he dismisses the apology flippantly. 

"Don't worry about it, bubeleh, I get it. It's fine." Angus doesn't seem to buy it, but all he does is cling tighter and begin a fresh wave of sobbing. "You're okay," Taako murmurs, "It's all cool." 

Angus' tears eventually taper off into exhausted sniffling, and Taako can feel the boy settling into limp dead weight and knows that if he doesn't get them up now, then he'll be stuck down here for a while, but... 

He's not in any particular hurry, and if Angus has decided that Taako's lap is The Place to nap then well, Taako can let it slide just this once.

**Author's Note:**

> Kids and their emotions can be messy and confusing because they're little and trying to figure shit out.  
> [my tumblr](http://www.princex-n.tumblr.com) and [my twitter](http://www.twitter.com/princex_n)


End file.
